OREANDA-NEWS. The "Druzhba" pipeline running through the territory of Belarus is in satisfactory condition, said Igor Demin, advisor to the president of the Transneft company. Earlier, the Belarusian authorities threatened to stop the transit of Russian oil.

Demin told reporters that the detected defects of the Belarusian sections of the pipeline can be repaired without an emergency stop for the transit of fuel. According to him, Transneft is ready to help Belarusian colleagues with repairs. So Demin responded to the words of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic, Igor Petrishenko, who promised to close the Druzhba pipeline for routine repairs. The official explained that they want to repair the pipe including in connection with the requirements of ecology and the "green economy".

The day before, the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said that in Russia "they became impudent to such an extent that they begin to twist our hands." So he commented on the embargo on the import of Belarusian apples and pears into the Russian Federation. Lukashenko regarded this measure as a sanction and threatened to supply pipelines for repairs, through which Russia transports its main export product - oil.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia expressed the hope for a constructive dialogue between Moscow and Minsk: Russia and Belarus are allies and like-minded people in the international arena, and effective foreign economic coordination has been established between the countries. This was announced on Friday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the founding conference of the A. Gromyko Association for Foreign Policy Studies.

According to him, such a pairing of efforts "is in the fundamental interests of the fraternal peoples, the tasks of maintaining regional stability."